UKIPT Nottingham: Day 1A, Levels 5-7 updates (200-400 ante 50)

8.43pm: Break timePlayers are on a 20 minute break, whilst there's lull in play why not check out the chip count page, Tom Kugelstadt and Tim Chung lead the way with 105,000 each. You'll find level 8-11 updates here. -- NW

8.40pm: Obadun almost done, Sahnan savedThere was already close to 25,000 in the pot and four cards exposed: A♣Q♣7♣4♠. Harish Sahnan shoved for 19,875 and Francis Obadun was put to what seemed to be an agonising decision for almost all of his chips.

He counted out the call, then paused. Then he thought and thought some more. Then he said, "Do you want me to call?" Sahnan said, "Do what you gotta do. Don't mind me." And almost instantly Obadun called.

Sahnan tabled 7♠7♦ for third set, with no club draw. Obadun was behind with his 9♣9♦, but had outs.

The dealer burned and turned the 4♣ on the river and Sahnan let out a yelp. "It's all right, you've got a full house," Obadun told him. Sahnan's yelp turned to a sigh of relief as he doubled up. He has about 50,000+ now. -- HS

8.35pm: Lane flushed away"I know I'm behind but I have to call," said Martin Bader as he called Mark Lane's all-in of some 20,000 on the flop of J♠6♦7♦. The hands were turned over and indeed he was - sort of - as he held J♦9♦ to Lane's Q♥Q♠. So whilst Bader was trailing now, he was a marginal favourite to win the hand - 51.6% to 48.3% to be precise - and the dealer didn't make him wait long as the A♦ fell on the turn to give him the lead, the pot and send Lane to the rail. -- NW

8.30pm: Berry nice indeedSarah Berry has tattoos on her wrists that read "Right" and "Left". The "Right" one is on the right wrist and the "Left" is on the left, but you probably guessed that (although it depends what direction you're looking from).

A combination of both was recently required to stack up about 23,000 chips, representing a full double up of her stack, through that of James Woodruff. I'm not certain how they got it in, but Berry had [10h][10s] and Woodruff K♥Q♥, so maybe it went in pre-flop. Certainly it was all in the middle after the first three community cards came [10c]Q♠3♥ and that set of tens stayed good through the 9♥A♣ turn and river. -- HS

8.10pm: Csiki squashedArriving to table 23, Mark Wilson had the button and 1,100 in front of him on the felt, Zoltan Csiki had the small blind and was all in for 4,575. Meanwhile Elias Christodoulou had 10,000 counted out and over the line in front of him in the cut off. Perhaps the latter had opened to 1,000, Wilson had called, Csiki had squeezed all in and now Christodoulou was raising again to isolate. Certainly seems plausible enough.

Anyhow, Wilson now ducked out, leaving his 1,100 to be scrapped out between the others, along with Csiki's tournament life. Csiki tabled A♠Q♦ and was racing Christodoulou's 9♥9♣.

But Christodoulou soon leapt into the lead when the flop came 8♠9♣6♠. The K♠ gave some hope of a redraw to the spades, but the 4♣ snuffed it out. Csiki departs. -- HS

7.55pm: Couldn't get it doneAll three of the Couldridge clan are out of the tournmant, 2010 champ Andrew the last of the three to exit.

7.45pm: Small potRafiq Patel limped under the gun, a whole 400 to play. Martin Bader called, but Greg Rodger made it 1,125. If he wanted them to fold, it didn't work. They both called.

The flop came 9♠2♥5♦, which they all checked, and then the [10c] turned. Patel bet 2,500, which only Bader called, shaking off the original raiser. The river was 7♦ and after Patel checked, Bader's bet of 3,800 won it.

Zimnan Ziyard is on that table, sitting in the three seat. He was the last player to register today. -- HS

7.40pm: Registration closesThat, then, is the end of registration on day 1A. The board shows that 532 players joined the fray today, of which 294 remain. There are three day ones remember, so we're looking at at least 1,500 for this. Gulp. -- HS

7.35pm: Exits308 of the 532 players remain, those who've been recently eliminated include: David Lloyd, Karl Fenton and Darshan Sami.

Just five minutes remain until registration closes. -- NW

7.25pm: The black knaveJohn Black just won a sizeable pot and wins the non existent award for winning a pot in the most nonchalant way. The action was started by Kevin Iacofano who raised to 675 from under-the-gun, Black flat called two seats along, only for Benjamin Preece to raise to 2,550. That squeezed out Iacofano but Black stuck around.

The flop of 5♥[10h]3♥ saw Black check-call a bet of 3,525. The J♠ fell on the turn and again Black check-called, this time a bet of 6,000. The [10c] completed the board and Black rapped the table for a third time, Preece couldn't empty the clip though, checking behind and showing A♥J♦, Black showed J♥J♣ to claim the pot and perhaps wonder if he could've won more. -- NW

7.15pm: How about Stadt!Ladies and gentleman we have a new chip leader, he is local player Tom Kugelstadt and he's also the first to break the 100,000 mark. Our thanks to fellow blogger Rich Prew for the details on the hand below.

Kugelstadt min-raised to 600 holding two black kings, Esref Govsa three-bet with A♣Q♣, Kugelstadt four-bet and Gosva flat called. The flop was about as wet as they come for the two hands as it was K♣[10c][9] giving Kugelstadt top set and Gosva a royal flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. Both players started the hand with over 50,000 and all the chips - around 105,000 total - found there way into the middle on this action flop.

The [10s] came on the turn to give Kugelstadt a full house and Gosva didn't make his royal flush on the river. Kugelstadt just had Gosva covered and now has four times the average stack and is a monster chip leader. -- NW

The six figure man - Tom Kugelstadt

7.10pm: Five star MarriottMy peanut-sized poker brain can't figure much of this out, but see what you can do. Here's a hand that just played out on table 27.

Shaun Higgins limped from mid position, which encouraged James Glossop to call from the hijack and Andrew Whitney to call from the button. Jamie Sykes called from the small blind and Reuben Marriott checked his option in the big.

That meant five of them saw a flop of 2♣Q♥K♣, which was checked by both Sykes and Marriott. Higgins bet 600, Glossop folded, but Whitney called. Sykes folded, but Marriott called.

There were three of them to the J♠ turn and Marriott checked. Higgins bet 1,100, Whitney called and then Marriott made it 2,200. Both Higgins and Whitney called the check-raise.

That took them to an A♣ river and Marriott moved all in for approximately 11,300. Higgins and Whitney quickly folded and Marriott scooped up the pot. -- HS

7.05pm: Area 51Just before the break I caught two hands at table 51, both involving John Greaves. In the first he raised to 825 from under-the-gun and got calls from Paul Grummitt and Shean Smith who were small blind and big blind respectively. On the flop of 5♠7♠4♥, Smith led for 1,400 and Grummitt was the only caller.

The 5♥ and 9♦ turn and river slowed the action, with both players checking it down, Smith showed pocket eights to claim the pot.

The next hand Ramazanali Abbassi and Greaves both put it 1,125 each pre-flop to see a board of 2♣[10d]5♠ hit the felt. It was Greaves who led the betting firing out 1,750, call from Abbassi. The turn was the 6♠ and Greaves threw out a single blue 5k chip, Abbassi moved all-in and after getting a count Greaves folded pocket eights face-up, Abbassi showed pocket tens for a flopped set. "You could've got a lot more out of me if you'd played that differently," said Greaves. -- NW

7pm: A new shark in the pondZimyan Ziyard, EPT Loutraki champion, has been lured along to UKIPT Nottingham. He did it in his own sweet time, late registering towards the beginning of level six. Registration will close at the end of this level. -- HS

6.55pm: Pre-prandial phewThe hand before the dinner break often throws up something interesting. Although several people head off as early as they possibly can - and that's a wise move given the length of the queues for the player buffet here - there always also seems to be a big hand or two stretching long into the break.

This time it was happening on table 38, where Rob Green, Valerie Bennett and Peter Vu were involved. Green had opened from mid-position and Bennett had made it 2,750 from the button. Vu, in the small blind, called.

The action was back to Green, who now four bet to 8,500. Bennett called. That call delighted Vu, even though he muttered, "That's so sick." He open folded J♥J♦ before he realised that the hand was still actually in progress.

Duly contrite, Vu stayed around to watch the rest of the action. The flop came 4♠6♦2♣ and Green bet 11,000. Bennett shook her head ruefully and muttered, "I had ace queen." She folded.

Green exposed A♥A♠ and Vu seemed even more happy. "I was going to shove against you," he told Bennett. "Phewwwwwwwww."

He held onto that last word as he headed to the buffet line. -- HS

6.42pm: Switcharoo

It's musical chairs time as half the field go on dinner break and half return to play level six, like most things at Dusk Till Dawn though it happens seamlessly. -- NW

6.35pm: German playing by instinct

Professional footballer Antonio German is still mixing it up over on table 31 and certainly seems to be enjoying his poker. He's not afraid to get his chips in either, even if sometimes he claims not to be happy to do so.

Just recently Yonatan Basin opened to 625 and Mark Karoullas, one seat to his left, raised to 1,200. German called on the button, but only then realised that he had called a three bet and not just an open raise. "Are you reporting this? Well don't. This is such a bad hand. I didn't mean to call that," he said.

Basin also called, which meant it was three way to the K♣9♣2♥ flop. Basin checked, Karoullas bet 2,000 but if this was the time to get away, neither other player took it. They both called.

The turn was J♦, which all three checked, and the Q♣ rivered. They all checked that too and German declared, "Two pair!" Basin, though, said, "Straight!" and showed his Q♠[10h]. Karoullas mucked and German started berating himself.

"I was going to jam the river," he said. "I'm such a bad player." Etc., etc. He still has plenty of chips. -- HS

6.30pm: Chip leader and exitsPlayers continue to tumble at a pace here in Nottingham with Willie Tan, Raj Verma and Ash Mason amongst the latest of the 201 exits.

And Keith Johnson, who won Eureka Prague in season one is up to 75,000 which by our reckoning makes him chip leader. Which reminds us Eureka Croatia started today, you can find updates of that tournament here. Or by clicking on the widget on the right hand side. -- NW

6.20pm: Chip countsIt's a lot easier to do chip counts when you don't have to struggle past tables full of players, with that in mind I had a whip round the tables of the players on break looking for those who's stack was 50,000 or more, here's what I found: Rahul Patel (66,600), Gary Banks (58,000), Martin Jorgensen (56,700), Matthew Simpson (56,000), Khoa Nguyen (54,600), Iaron Lightbourne (54,500), Olegs Pavlucuks (53,000) and Yung Hon Ngan (50,000). Check out selected chip counts by clicking here. -- NW

6.10pm: Souped up CampbellLeon Campbell has emerged as an early force on day 1A. He has about 57,000, which is right up there in the top five. Campbell looked on as the following hand broke out, but it may go some way to explaining his big stack. It seems like there's a good deal of action on his table.

Richard Burton opened to 1,100 from under the gun and Nicholas Gavriel called from two seats to his left. Rafiq Patel moved all in for what was only about 2,150 and the two others called.

So three saw a flop of 4♦6♠6♣ but only two were active. And Burton check-called Gavriel's bet of 4,000. The 9♣ turned and Burton checked again. Gavriel bet 8,000 and this time Burton let it go.

Gavriel tabled A♠4♠ for third pair. And although Patel must have been delighted to triple up with his A♥6♥ he may have been left wishing he'd had more chips to start the hand with. Nice flop. -- HS

6pm: Check out the wormTraditional plodder Mickey Wernick is off to a positively lightning start by his standards, as he's near doubled his stack in the opening five levels. Just before the break I saw him play a pot which more befitted his style.

He raised to 600 from the button and as it passed to Robert Woodcock in the big blind Wernick said: "I know you don't like doing it but you are allowed to pass." Woodcock wasn't listening however as he made the call.

That though was the end of the betting as the two of them checked it down on a board of [10c][10d][10s]Q♦9♣, Wernick announced ace high and showed A♥8♠ it was good enough as Woodcock showed 7♦6♦. -- NW

5.45pm: Chink in the armourJames Glossop is crushing today, but he it not, it turns out, immortal. He just lost with aces to Andrew Whitney's A♣Q♣.

I'm not sure of any of the action that got them to a board of J♣8♣J♥9♣3♠ but there was close to 9,000 in the pot and Glossop bet 4,200. Whitney raised to 12,600 and was all in.

James Glossop

Glossop reasoned, "There's too much in there" and tossed in the call. And then he saw the hands, meaning the pot was heading to Whitney. "Thought you had jack three or something," said Whitney, to the general amusement of the table.

It was indicative of the way it's been running for Glossop today. Even after that slight mis-step, he still has 56,000 approx. -- HS

5.40pm: Buffet chargeWith the start of level six, half the field are now on dinner break whilst other half play on, they'll switch roles in one hour. There's now an alarmingly long buffet queue stretching as far as the eye can see. So tip to anyone who's playing level six and reading the blog, best to leave the table a couple of minutes early to get a good place in the queue. --NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25

5.30pm: Jorgensen chargesMartin Jorgensen and Jeremy Brown were involved in a pot. Well, those were the two who had the cards but Shah Koumi, also at the table, was making the most noise. He called the clock on Brown, who was pondering a call for his tournament life, looking at a board of J♥[10h]A♥4♦. Jorgensen had moved all in.

5.25pm: Drop outsPlayers continue to stream out the tournament with reckless abandon, 365 of 528 entrants remain. Amongst the latest to lose their chips and their shot at the £1,000,000 prizepool are: Alan Vinson, Jerome Bradpiece and Tom Cunningham. -- NW

Alan Vinson

5.15pm: Mr CoolHe used to be a fixture of both the UK and European circuit but sightings of Marc Goodwin at tournaments have been rare in the past couple of years. The stats back this up, between 2005 and 2009 'Mr Cool' racked up tournament cashes of $2,126,619 but since his €530,000 score for finishing second at EPT Madrid in September 2009 he's cashed for a total of just $6,451.

He's got off to a reasonable start here in Nottingham; his stack is up to 28,500 from a starting bank of 15,000. He has an air of concentration and focus about him headphones on, blocking out distractions.

So much so that he didn't even blink as Benjamin Preece doubled through Alan Omar in the two seats to his immediate right. There's another player at Goodwin's table who knows what it's like to final an EPT, Kevin Iacofano finalled both EPT Copenhagen (4th, February 2011) and EPT London (6th, September 2011) the American also has a WSOP final table under his belt and over $2,000,000 winnings online. Clearly he can play a bit. -- NW

Marc 'Mr Cool' Goodwin

5.10pm: No respec'. FineDarshan Sami opened to 650 from under the gun and got four callers, including Tim Flanders two seats to his left. I'm not sure whether he has been doing that a lot, but clearly those others didn't much respect the raise.

The flop came 5♥4♠3♦ and Sami was one of the two opening checkers. Flanders, however, bet 1,2000 and Sami was the only one who called. They both then checked the K♠ turn, which brought a [10d] river. Sami bet 1,500, Flanders inst-called, but was beaten. Sami showed A♥K♣ and Flanders' J♠J♣ were beaten. -- HS

5.05pm: Benson bustsRedmond Lee has just sent Peter Benson to the rail. Lee opened to 700, Benson shoved for 3,875 and Lee called from his 10,000-ish stack. Lee had A♣J♣ and was racing Benson's 5♦5♣. The board ran J♥K♠9♦2♦8♥ and that second card out was decisive. -- HS

5pm: Sherbert lickedCatching an exit from start to finish is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack due to the sheer volume of tables, but I just found a needle!

Richard Teatum opened to 800 with pocket jacks, Barrie Sherbert then moved all-in for 8,000 with A♦Q♣ and with the action back on Teatum he called the all-in bet. The board ran 5♦K♠[10s]5♣6♦ and despite flopping a gutshot draw to go with his overcards Sherbert's dip in this tournament is over. -- NW

4.50pm: Bambos joins the cash games tooIn addition to the exits mentioned below, Bambos Xanthos is now also prowling the cash game area. That clearly means his tournament is over. -- HS

4.45pm: Exits116 players have perished in the opening four levels, Paul Jackson is plodding no more having recently been eliminated and Adrian Hurley is also free to take a seat at one of the cash tables should he wish to. -- NW

4.40pm: BackPlayers have now returned from their second break and we enter level five. Blinds are 150-300. According to the tournament clock, there are 413 players remaining, but we're still not sure how many actually started. Registration is still open for another two hours. (It is at least 530 for today.)

Anyhow, how about a picture of the man, the legend, the Mickey Wernick? Sure. Here he is.

Mickey Wernick on day 1A of UKIPT Nottingham

Reporting team in Nottingham: Howard Swains and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.